As we all know from Aesop's fables, when everything is an emergency, people stop paying attention.

And between the emergency need to renew the Bush tax cuts before the end of last year to bringing the government to the brink of a shutdown, the argument about what should be traded off to raise the debt ceiling is burning hot in Washington, but giving much of the rest of the country a sense that politicians are just doing it for the publicity.

Around 80% of Americans are angry or dissatisfied at the work of the federal government – and it's not just at Obama.

Nearly 77% of those polled blame Republicans for being unwilling to negotiate about the debt ceiling, setting the stage to blame them when it doesn't happen. That, of course, is exactly what President Obama wants, if he can't get Republicans to agree to his combination of tax increases and spending cuts, though his plan hardly inspires warm feelings in members of his own party.

Obama took his message to the (carefully controlled) streets on Friday in a town hall meeting, telling the crowd, "The United States of America doesn't run out without paying the tab. We pay our bills. We meet our obligations."

It might have had more resonance if the GAO hadn't just issued a report cataloging the $16 trillion in loans the Federal Reserve extended to the world's banks at a time when banks in the States were about to begin foreclosing on homeowners by the millions and the government hadn't bailed out many a large corporation as personal bankruptcies spiked.

Obama has warned that a default could endanger the timely delivery of America's beloved seniors' social security checks, and added Friday that a default would raise interest rates for everyone, forcing everyone to pay more to borrow money – almost, he said, like the taxes Republicans desperately want to keep the rich from having to pay.

Both the default and the House GOP's "cut, cap and balance" showpiece plan could have deleterious effects on the American economy that last well into the 2012 election season, and, obviously, both sides are jockeying to not be seen as the architects of a double dip recession just in time for desperate and disaffected voters to decide whether the status quo is good enough.

But between jockeying for position for an election yet a year off and running for the bank of cameras now following their every move, American politicians are effectively convincing their constituents of one thing: they know how to create crises, milk them for all they're worth politically and fail to come up with a lasting solution.

Now they just have to work out how to make that an effective campaign slogan. It's at least better than encouraging the rest of us to "eat our peas."